1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to materials handling systems and, more particularly, to management of costs within a materials handling system.
2. Description of the Related Art
An enterprise that receives, consumes, transforms or distributes material during the course of its operations may implement a materials handling system to coordinate how material is managed within the enterprise. For example, in a manufacturing context, material may include raw materials, feedstocks, parts, etc. that may arrive at a manufacturing facility for processing as well as intermediate or finished goods resulting from the manufacturing process. Similarly, in a distribution context, retailers, wholesalers and other types of distributors may receive materials such as goods or products and distribute them to clients or customers.
Material may be stored as inventory within an inventory facility and made available for ordering or use by clients or customers. For example, in a manufacturing context, a client may include a step of a manufacturing process that includes a particular type of material as an input, while in a retail context, a client may include a customer who places an order for a product. In conventional materials handling systems, like items often may be stored together within inventory. For example, items having a common Universal Product Code (UPC), Stock-Keeping Unit (SKU) code, or other designation (including proprietary designations) may be stored together within inventory.
When retrieval of material from inventory is necessary, for example in response to a client's order or to replenish a manufacturing process, one or several inventory items must be retrieved or “picked” from inventory and prepared for delivery to the requestor or recipient. In an inventory environment that includes a large number of many different items and services the demands of a number of different requesters, at any given time there may be a substantial number of outstanding requests for picking items. To improve picking productivity, a materials handling system may employ multiple item pickers distributed throughout an inventory facility and may assign different picking operations (including, in some cases, picking of different items for a single order) to different pickers.
The costs of providing material from inventory to a customer may be affected by the availability of ordered material within the materials handling facility. For example, if a customer orders several items that are not available within a single facility, the costs for separately providing the items to the customer may be considerably higher than if the items were located within the same facility and could, for example, be picked, packaged and shipped together. Such excess costs due to inventory placement are typically borne by the enterprise and may erode profitability, for example with respect to low-margin inventory.